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Mets Come Up Short of Sweeping Braves

Sunday, April 30, 2006
By Mike Steffanos

Braves 8 - Mets 5

The Mets provided Steve Trachsel offense that Tom Glavine could only dream about, but Trax picked a bad day to be just plain bad. Moved up a day in front of Victor Zambrano to give the Mets a better chance of winning a game in Atlanta, instead Trax put up a start that ranks with the worst Zambrano has to offer, complete with 5 walks, 8 hits and 6 earned runs in 3-2/3 innings.

The Dark Clouds

This was Trachsel at his tedious worst -- slow, nibbling, exasperating. He got squeezed a little, and was victimized by some fluke hits, but make no mistake, he stunk today. I'm not angry at him -- the truth is that he's never pitched well in Atlanta, and I didn't love changing the rotation to give him this game. Now you have Zambrano and (probably) fill-in John Maine back-to back.

Delgado's cooled off considerably, and, at 34, it might not be a bad idea to get him a day off soon.

The day before his return to Shea, Matsui was good in the field but terrible at the plate. He left 7 runners on base with his 0-5. He was robbed of a hit in one AB, but didn't come close after that. His timing sucks.

Despite the 2 homers in game 1 of the series, Wright is still scuffling at the plate.

Victor Diaz came up in a huge spot with the bases loaded and 2 outs. I know he hasn't played, but this was his chance to show something and he popped out. Baseball is a cruel and unfair sport sometimes, you have to take advantage of your limited chances when you're Victor, and he came up wanting.

Jorge Julio gave up his 4th home run in only 11-2/3 innings, a monster shot to Francoeur that hasn't landed yet.

The Silver Linings

Other than making one mistake and paying for it, Julio actually looked decent. He didn't blow up after the homer. If he can become a viable option out of the bullpen, maybe they can try Heilman as a starter again. Starting pitching is still the weakest link. Having said that, I still think Julio has a lot to prove. He came into a 2-run game and gave up 2 critical runs.

Beltran hit a big home run to bring the Mets back into the game. He'd better keep hitting, or Endy -- who also homered -- will put his high-priced butt back on the bench.

Jose Valentin had a hit to lift his season avg back over .100.

Reyes walked 3 times in 5 plate appearances. We may never see that again.

The Mets are back at home to face the Nationals tomorrow night at 7:10 PM. Victor Zambrano pitches against Ramon Ortiz. Let's go Mets!

Comments (4)

The umpire was not that bad Traxx was worse.

I am an avid non-traxx fan. That is not new. Yesterday was vintage traxx. He cant get the ball by anyway so relies on off speed stuff. The Atl hitters sit back wait for the non-breaking slider in the zone and slap it thru holes.

I thought Julio was great. The Atl crew lauded him. His splitter was awesome. He was getting squeezed off the plate away. The thing that got him, i think was the 90%-99% thing. I knew 5 seconds before he threw it what he was doing. He speeded up his delivery, and as the crew noted Francouer can hit any FB in.

But that was where that pitch was meant to go. In his 90% motion you cant tell FB fromm splitter/change. He SO McCann on the same pitch he threw to francouer. No. He IS good and if you compare note Wags got burned by Zimmerman and bonds with pitches in the same location. Unlike Traxx.Julio was a facimile of dominant.

Davies is a lot younger than Trachsel but managed to deal with the ump better. Trax is Trax.

Make no mistake, I'm impressed with what Julio has accomplished in a short period of time with Peterson. I'm not going to kill him for one bad pitch. He's got the worst luck this year, they've hammered his every mistake.

Still, I'm not ready to see Julio come into a spot like the one Heilman came into the night before. He's still got a ways to go.